Saturday, January 21, 2017

Moral Courage

"Interdependent"

- in my meditation garden-

On this “Inauguration” weekend in the United States we are
confronted with abundant evidence about just how much this country is divided.
As a new president takes office hordes of people gather to offer their unqualified
support while just as many if not more assemble in public places throughout the
nation to march and protest the new administration - no doubt each “camp” believing
that they are right and the other side is wrong.

I’ve been thinking about the divisions in our culture and
have come to the conclusion that, apart
from of any political affiliation or religious belief, there are some universal
moral standards that define what is right
and wrong good and bad, and that we
are all called to courageously uphold and promote those standards because we
are “human beings.”

People often tend to avoid talking about morality because they
associate moral conversation with religion. “Morals” are rules handed
down by religious institutions who claim that these are the laws of God. So of course, if you aren’t religious, you
probably want nothing to do with conversations about morality.

Even apart from all the religious baggage associated with “morality,”
the idea of publicly applied universal moral standards is also somewhat
anathema to the sensibilities of contemporary people in this “postmodern era” in
which many believe that we all have our own personal truth and we all set our
own personal standards about what is right and what is wrong.

But as I see it, in an era of growing racism, bigotry and
intolerance, in an era where “me-first” has become the motto of the day, we all
need to re-engage one another in a vigorous moral dialogue, expanding our
definition of “morality” beyond religious teachings as we explore those universal principles of “right and wrong” that
apply to all of us.

I very much agree with what the Dalai Lama had to say a few
years back in his very insightful book Beyond
Religion: Ethics for a Whole World. He
makes a compelling argument for removing moral conversations beyond “religious
institutions” and suggests that there are some pretty clear principles of
universal “human” morality - upholding these standards has more to do with our
survival as a species than with following religious dictates:

Fortunately there is now a
reasonably substantial body of evidence

in evolutionary biology,
neuroscience and other fields suggesting that,

even from the most rigorous
scientific perspective,

unselfishness and concern for
others are innate to our biological nature.

Interdependence is a key feature
of human reality.

As human beings we can survive
and thrive only in an environment of

concern, affection and
warm-heartedness – or in a single word, compassion.

Without compassion for one another we cannot and will not
survive - compassion is the glue that holds us together and allows us to
thrive. The practice of compassion is the universal moral compass that must serve
to guide Christians and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, Atheists and Agnostics, Democrats
and Republicans, Liberals and Conservatives. Without a sense of our
interdependence and respect for one another’s dignity we are all on a slippery
slope that ultimately leads us to the dead end of extinction. Now more than
ever each of us, no matter who we are, must muster up every ounce of moral courage
we have to fight for and uphold these standards before it’s too late.

The poet and environmentalist, Wendell Berry, once put it
this way:

‘Every man for himself’ is a
doctrine for a feeding frenzy

or for a panic in a burning
nightclub,

appropriate for sharks or hogs
pot perhaps a cascade of lemmings.

A society wishing to endure must
speak the language of

care-taking, faith-keeping,

kindness and compassion,

neighborliness and peace.

On this “Inauguration” weekend, many people all over this
land (and all over the globe) will be fighting with one another, each sure that
they have found “the” truth; but the only
truth is love and the only moral standard that apples to us all is compassion
and kindness. Indeed, any society wishing to endure must speak this language.

About Me

I am a teacher, a writer, and a spiritual guide. I am an ordained Episcopal Priest and hold degrees in theology, philosophy, and communication. I am particularly interested in the common spiritual insights which the many various world religions share with one another.

My wife and I live in the beautiful desert in the Coachella Valley of Southern California.